I am at www.myspace.com/erikisaksen

The trend at the moment is to be on myspace. Better late than never: I am now on MYSPACE. Feel free to check it out!

As a special bonus for those who check it out: There are extended clips of my match against Bjørn Sem from 14th October in the video section. More clips are likely to come later.

Off to Spain and UK tour

Just a quick update for those visiting the blog. I am off to Spain tomorrow to participate in a match at a cinema festival in Barcelona. The organisers expect a crowd close to 1.500. I am prepared for some "lucha libre" inspired action! Should be fun to work a different style again.

On the 14th October, I have another title defence at an NWF show in a re-match against Bjørn Sem. I will kick his a**:-)

At the end of October, I go on a tour to the UK. This is actually my first trip to England since I wrestled for Brian Dixon in 2002. I will work for Premier Promotions, DAM Promotions and WAW. I look forward to go there again since I haven't been there for a few years.

This means that there will probably be a few more updates in the blog coming up in the near future. Stay tuned!

Colombia tour postponed

The Colombia tour that I was booked on for July/August was sadly postponed and I had to say no for the moment to re-schedule to the later dates due to other commitments. After already having received the flight tickets from the promotion in Colombia, I didn't expect that there would be changes to the tour.

Flight tickets are usually what I consider the "confirmation" that everything is going ahead. To my disappointed after having had the flight tickets for more than a month, I was told that there could be some problems about the original dates. Then about a week later I was told that it would definately be postponed, and sadly those rescheduled dates were impossible for me to do. This was a huge disappointment, probably one of the biggest disappointments in my wrestling career. The door is still open for future tours happening, so I cross my fingers for that.

One of my ambitions this year was to be booked outside Europe. It really seemed like it was going to happen but now it looks less likely again. I am still hoping though but who knows where.

Next event for me is on the 20th August at the Rockefeller Music Hall in Oslo for NWF's 2nd biggest annual event: HeteSLAG. Big John is facing me in a re-match for the Norwegian Championship on that event.

Norwegian Championship and South-America tour

On the 10th June, I added a 2nd Norwegian Championship to my resume. In front of the crowd at Parkteatret in Oslo, now former champion Jon "Big John" Veivåg failed to lift his hand when I had him in a sleeper-like hold. I am no longer a popular man in Oslo. NWF had two events this day, and on the evenining show, I defeated Talentfulle Thomas by countout. I was sitting comfortably in a chair in the middle of the ring whilst veteran referee Thomas Andresen counted out my opponent. I am the "icon" of Norwegian wrestling and the fans in Oslo hate me more and more for that reason....

In July, a moment I have waited long for is about to become reality. I have been in talks before about wrestling in various places around the world over the years, and finally I am about to wrestle outside Europe for the first time. Near the end of July, I go on a 2 week tour to South-America. I am really excited about this although the setting will be completely different to what I am used to. However, one of my best skills as a wrestler, at least in my mind, is that I am able to adjust to different opponents and styles. In addition to that, I am also a tecnically sound wrestler who have had great focus on the fundamentals over the years. I look forward to this opportunity and chance to display my skills outside Europe. I will not disclose much more at this moment, but there are talks of arenas housing upto 10.000 fans and TV tapings! I have been in talks about this tour since April, and this past weekend I received my flight reservations and everything is set to happen!

"10 year anniversary" match vs. Bernard Vandamme

On Friday 17th March, I wrestled Belgium's Bernard Vandamme for the EUROSTARS European Championship in my hometown, Lillestrøm. A lot of publicity leading up to the match didn't result in any record breaking crowds, but still 300+ in Lillestrøm is a decent figure. The setup of the hall made for good atmosphere and the tribunes looked reasonably full. I was clearly the home favourite and it made for a good setting for my "10 year anniversary" match although I lost the match. I won the first fall but Vandamme won the last two falls of the match and retained the championship. I have wrestled Vandamme several times in the last couple of years, and he is definately a good wrestler and very agile for his size. A photo from the match, taken by Knockout Magazine, is posted here. It shows my toprope dropkick and is a really good photo.

The monster from the depth of hell, Cybernic Machine, who had a guest role in the Jet Li movie "Danny the Dog", wrestled for NWF for the first time. He did a tremendous double bodyslam on Fremtiden.

I don't have time to write a big post today, but if you have good internet access you can download clips from the show at this link (50 mb). Those clips say a lot more than I can describe:-)

10 year anniversary!!!

Today on the 15th March, I celebrate that 10 years has gone since a nervous Norwegian guy travelled to York to participate in his first ever wrestling match, a royal rumble.

Wow, 10 years! At that time, I couldn't even dream about what I have experienced in the last 10 years. Although I live in Norway, which isn't the best place to live when thinking about getting bookings around Europe, I feel proud about my achievents both in and out of Norway. I hope it doesn't sound like I have a "big head" as that is not my intention of writing that....

Before I made my debut, my goal was to wrestle a few matches when I lived in England 1995 and 1996 but things didn't stop there. I am still wrestling 10 years after, and I have continuously set new goals that I want to achieve.

As I write this, I am not really sure what to write about in this post, except for the fact that I know this post could put me through some great memories and some not-so-great memories of what I have experienced.

Ok, let's start with my debut. I wasn't the best wrestler ever when I made my debut. That's for sure. What I should say here is thank you to the guys who let me into the wrestling business and the people who made life a lot easier when I got a foot inside. Brian Dixon was the promoter who gave me the chance to enter the ring. Thank you. I have probably mentioned them before, but guys like Robbie Brookside, Doc Dean and James Mason were willing to share their knowledge and help me. So was the Mark Atkin, a.k.a. the Viking Warrior, who is not as well known but who was a good friend outside the ring when we were travelling together. Julie Starr who usually sold merchandise on tours, and wrestled, was also friendly towards me. I spent a good amount of time travelling with Doc Dean, Mark Atkin, Julie Starr and Brian Dixon in 1996. Looking back, I miss travelling with them. But time goes on.

I actually planned to retire when I moved back to Norway at the end of 1996, but at the time I didn't know I would get a training partner. Rainer, a.k.a. "Sporty" Rainer Hansen in NWF, moved to Oslo from the north of Norway in 1997 and we started training wrestling together and then his brother, Tommy, a.k.a. Tommy Gun, joined in. It was actually a coincidence that I got in touch with Rainer. What if I hadn't got in touch with him? I don't think NWF would even have existed if I didn't get in touch with him by coincidence.... So for the people coming to our shows, show your respect to this guy. He is more important to Norwegian wrestling history than you know.... Also there is another guy, Jan Vidar, who is just a fan but he is the little bugger who "forced me" to come and watch wrestling together with him at a time when I was really starting to lose interest in wrestling in the early 1990s. Rainer and Jan Vidar do both have a part of wrestling history in Norway.

I could write a book about my 10 years in wrestling but I will keep it short. Here are just some random memories; travelling to York to make my debut, travelling on camp shows throughout England, meeting and wrestling against wrestlers from around the globe, meeting some of the biggest superstars in wrestling, wrestling around Europe, wrestling on a New-Japan show, being in pain, training, winning championships, disappointments, good crowds, bad crowds, hard work, frustration, happines, and so on. The sum of all this is positive although there have been moments I wanted to quit..... but it is hard to quit when you love something so much deep inside.

I will not speculate if I am still wrestling in another 10 years but I guarantee you this; I set new goals all the time. There is more I want to achieve before I say enough is enough and it is time to "retire".....

This coming Friday, 17th March, I have my "10 year anniversary" show in my hometown Lillestrøm, wrestling for the European championship against Bernard Vandamme. Hopefully that will be a great day/night that I can look back on in 2016!

Here are some random photos I have collected for this post:
October 2001 (Norway): First ever NWF show in Trondheim 18th October 2001. I hold Bjørn Sem in an armbar.











April 2002 (England): Together with wrestling legend Jake "the Snake" Roberts in Walthamstow.











April 2002 (England): A dive to the outside on Joe Legend, ex-TNA and ex-WWE wrestler.












April 2003 (Spain): An international crew backstage in Barcelona.












November 2004 (Norway): T-bone suplexing Bernard Vandamme on my way to win the Eurostars European Champonship.










September 2005 (Finland): Screaming in pain as the Finnish cult hero, Suomi-Poijka, twists my arm.

NWF tag team tournament, Daniel Sebastian, and Italy show

It has been a while since I last posted on the blog, but now it is time again.

The first NWF show of the year, actually two as it was a double show, were on the 21st January at Parkteatret in Oslo. This was the first time NWF used this hall, and it could probably become a regular NWF hall in the future. On the afternoon show, I won the rumble style match, "Kongen på haugen", but I guess one of the biggest highlights of that show was the debut of the NWF superhero, Kaptein Knoke.

The evening show was sold out with about 300 spectators, making a good atmosphere for the first ever NWF tag team tournament.

This tournament didn't start the way it was supposed to do as my tag team partner, Daniel Sebastian, had to withdraw from the tournament due to a neck injury. This meant that I had to find a new tag team partner and chose Rainer Hansen. He was the first guy I ever trained with in Norway all the way back in 1997 but it took him eight years to make his debut. Before he sounds like the least talented wrestler in the world, spending 8 years in training before making his debut, I should mention that he hasn't been training regularly all the time since 1997, and he did also take part of some well-paid exhibition matches against me in 2000, the year before NWF was established.

Anyway, back to the tournament, Rainer Hansen and I lost against Fremtiden despite a good effort from Rainer in the match. Fremtiden became the first ever Norwegian tag team champions after two of their careers' best matches, beating Bjørn Sem and Talentfulle Thomas in the final.

Instead of talking more about that NWF show, I want to congratulate Daniel Sebastian with his 20th birthday on 1st February. Congratulations, Daniel Sebastian! He is no longer a "teenage sensation". Too bad as it was a good description for him but time moves on...... quickly!

Going back to 2002, Daniel Sebastian wrestled his second match. He was only 16 years old at the time, and as the "leader" in the NWF group, I felt responsible for looking after him on wrestling trips. That wasn't too cool because the day after the show we couldn't find him at the hotel, and we were supposed to leave shortly as we had a 8-10 hour drive ahead of us. We didn't reach him on the phone, and we didn't get an answer when we knocked on his door. We were looking for him "everywhere" but couldn't find him.... The blood started rushing. Had something happened to him? We finally got some hotel personell to open the door to his room. He wasn't there, and all his stuff was gone. OMG!

To be continued.... Oh, that was a mean way to stop the story:-)

Last Saturday, I wrestled for IWS in Italy again. On Friday,I had to get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to get to the airport in time for my flight from Oslo to Milano via Amsterdam at 06:40. The trip, together with Bjørn Sem also from NWF, didn't start to well as our flight from Amsterdam to Milano was cancelled due to snow in Milano. Luckily, we were able to re-book and get a flight via Paris to Torino. At 10PM, we finally were in Italy and went out for a few drinks with our colleagues and got two hours of sleep. Already at 03:30 on Saturday morning, we had to get up again to get on a 7-8 hour bus ride to Perugia.

After some promoting of the event at a local mall, we finally got to the arena at about 6PM. I wrestled Damon Brix from Austria and won with the "Isaksen driver". This was a truly international event with wrestlers from a number of countries; Chris the Bambikiller, Michael Kovac, Damon Brix and Cardinal Colen (all from Austria), Alofa (Samoa), El Bronco and Alex Montalvo (WWC Puerto Rico), Makoto (Japan), El Mariachi, Flama Mortal and Mandibula (Mexico), El Dinamico and El Chico (Dominican Republic), and of course Bjørn Sem and me from Norway. And let's not forget; Italian Dream representing Italy in Italy:-) One of the things I like about the IWS is the variety of wrestlers and styles in the roster. One thing I hate though is the music that is played in the background during matches, killing the atmosphere completely....

After the event, we were taken to a big, local disco where all the wrestlers were announced on the speakers and applauded. Bjørn Sem was the centre of attention on the dance floor when he showed some of his best skills; dancing! At 05:30 in the morning, we finally got to bed before getting up again at 9, packing our stuff and eating breakfast.

Of course, as the huge superstars we are:-), we were taken to the airport in Milano in a limousine. That trip took 4-5 hours after a drive well above the speed-limit.

Just after midnight, I was home..... It sounds like we spent a lot of time travelling, and that's a fact:-) That's a wrestler's life on the road; lots of travelling and lack of sleep!

Oh, so you want to hear the rest of the Daniel Sebastian "missing" story? We finally found him. For some reason he had gone to the hotel reception area and fallen asleep in a sofa there. Sometimes people can be found at some of the most obvious places:-)

What's next for me? On 17th March, I have a scheduled re-match for the EUROSTARS European Championship against Bernard Vandamme (if he is still champ by then) in my hometown, Lillestrøm. Maybe I can celebrate my 10th anniversary as a wrestler with some gold around my waist? Yes, 10 years since my first match in York on 15th March 1996..... As said earlier, time moves on quickly.....